MG Motor India to be owned by Indians in 2-4 years: Rajeev Chaba

MG Motor India on Wednesday unveiled plans to become an Indian company — which will be majority owned by Indians — in two to four years.

The Chinese car manufacturer is looking to dilute its stake by selling shares to Indian entities, including financial institutions, high-networth individuals (HNIs), corporates as well as dealers.

"We are talking to multiple partners but haven't finalised anything yet," says Rajeev Chaba, CEO emeritus, MG Motor India.

'Indianising' MG Motor India will mean Indianising its board, shareholding, and management, says Chaba.

MG Motor India will set up a second manufacturing facility in Gujarat, significantly increasing the combined production output from the current 1,20,000 to 3,00,000 vehicles. The company intends to launch 4-5 new cars, mostly EV models, and achieve 65-75% of its sales from the EV portfolio by 2028.

Chaba says the company broke cash even in March and will be solidly profitable from next year onwards. Furthermore, the carmaker is also planning to launch an initial public offering by 2028.

MG Motor India aims to invest more than ₹5,000 crore and have a total of 20,000 workforce—both direct as well as indirect—by 2028.

Chaba says the carmaker will invest in advanced clean technologies, including hydrogen fuel cells and cell manufacturing, as well as bolster local manufacturing of EV parts through JVs or third-party manufacturing.

"Our endeavour will be to explore the possibility of manufacturing cells here with joint ventures, partners or with third-party getting into the cells, so that we can localise our cells in the future to minimise the cost, as well as produce in India to reduce any supply chain risk," Chaba says.

"Hydrogen is one stage further ahead of this. Because globally hydrogen cell technology are not commercialised much at this stage. There are some niche segments which are doing this, but it is not commercialised on a large scale because the cost is high. We have the technology with us, and hopefully, the rates will go down in the next three-four years, if we find the local partner and localise in India at a lower cost, then we can become a base not only for MG Motor India but also for other OEMs. So that's the possibility we are looking at," he adds.